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How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

I work for Favor (courier service) and have spent hundreds of dollars on maintenance on my bicycle. I was under the impression that said expenses were deductible, but I'm having trouble finding a turbo tax category that this works for.
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1 Best answer

Accepted Solutions

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Yes, said  expenses are deductible!

To enter your maintenance expenses as self employed:

To report your business expense in TurboTax:

Type in schedule c in the search box, top right of your screen

Click on the first category Jump to schedule c link

Follow the prompts and online instructions

Arrive at the Your Business page

Scroll down to the Business Expense category

Click start or update next to Other Common Business Expenses category

Arrive at the Let's write off some business expenses page

Scroll down to the Repairs And Maintenance category

 

If you are employee, enter in the below area:

See the Job-Related Expenses page

 


View solution in original post

13 Replies

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Yes, said  expenses are deductible!

To enter your maintenance expenses as self employed:

To report your business expense in TurboTax:

Type in schedule c in the search box, top right of your screen

Click on the first category Jump to schedule c link

Follow the prompts and online instructions

Arrive at the Your Business page

Scroll down to the Business Expense category

Click start or update next to Other Common Business Expenses category

Arrive at the Let's write off some business expenses page

Scroll down to the Repairs And Maintenance category

 

If you are employee, enter in the below area:

See the Job-Related Expenses page

 


How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Thanks a lot!

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Your welcome and thanks for choosing TurboTax!.

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Following the above procedure, the only prompts are for info on automobiles, not bikes. Am I supposed to describe my bike as an auto under 6,000lbs? Why doesn't Turbotax make calculating for bikes more straightforward & transparent?

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

A bike is not a "vehicle" under the tax code.  You would list the bike itself as an asset and the expenses under general repairs, you can't list it in the vehicle section.

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Also- should I enter a max of $53/mo under miscellaneous expenses?

Carl
Level 15

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Lets keep it simple here.

Your bicycle is a business asset that gets entered in the Business Assets section. The bicycle is not a motor vehicle as defined by the IRS, so it's not entered in the Business Vehicle Expenses section at all.

Your expenses to repair and maintain the bicycle are entered as a general business expense.

In the Business Expenses section elect to start/update Other Common Business Expenses. The scroll down to Repairs and Maintenance and that's where you'll enter/claim all expenses related to the maintenance and repair of your bicycle.

 

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Hi,

Thank you for this info.

I was (optimistically?) under the impression that the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2019 (or similar) would come into play here, allowing me to claim bicycle commute miles, bike devaluation, etc. in the same way that car use is incentivized/offset. Is there no such provision?

 

Hal_Al
Level 15

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

"Also- should I enter a max of $53/mo under miscellaneous expenses?" "I was (optimistically?) under the impression that the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2019 (or similar) would come into play here".

 

The Bicycle Commuter Act of 2019, with the  max of $53/mo, would allow an employer to provide a  tax free employee benefit.  It never allowed an employee to get a direct tax deduction.  The Act would restore the benefit eliminated with the 2018 tax law.  i don't believe it ever passed. 

 

It  would also  not apply to a self employed person claiming expenses on Schedule  C.  You can deduct all your actual expenses.  On the other hand if you are a W-2 employee, you cannot deduct any of your job expenses, including bike repairs.

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Ah ok thank you for clarifying.

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

There has never been a tax deduction for commuting expenses, regardless of whether a person is a W-2 employee or self-employed.  

 

Previously, the tax law allowed employers to provide employees with free or discounted parking without having to include the value of the parking as part of their wages.  (Normally, everything of value that is provided to an employee as compensation for services must be counted as taxable income, unless it qualifies as one of the specific types of non-taxable fringe benefits under the tax code.)   subsequently, the law was modified to allow employers to provide free or discounted mass transit passes to their employees without cars, without having to count it as taxable income.  These provisions were modified or eliminated as part of 2018 tax reform (I forget which).  But even these provisions when they existed did not create a tax deduction for W-2 employees’ commuting expenses – it only created the ability for the employer to provide a tax free benefit, if the employer chose to do so.


If you are a W-2 employee, your commuting expenses are not deductible. Your transportation expenses during your workday are no longer deductible at the federal level but may be deductible at a state level. You could only deduct your actual expenses related to transportation during the workday, not your trips to work from home and back again.  You would have to have some reasonable way of allocating your bicycle maintenance expenses between non-deductible commuting and possibly deductible work day transportation.

 

If you are self-employed and file a schedule C, and you use a bicycle for workday transportation that is an ordinary and necessary business expense for the type of work you do, then you can list the bicycle as an asset and depreciate it, and you can list your maintenance expenses as general business expenses.  However, if the bicycle is also an item of personal property used for pleasure or recreation, you must again allocate the percentage of ownership and allocate the percentage of maintenance expenses based on your percentage of business use, and, if you are audited, the IRS will want to see some kind of records or other reasonable basis for making that allocation.

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Thanks again,

 

Just to confirm: As a W-2 employee, I'm not able to claim any unreimbursed expenses?

The original post (June 6, 2019 4:12 AM) mentions employees using section 2106 for deductions.

Similarly, Turbotax is prompting me to summarize my assets under federal deductions/credits for my sole source of income; W-2 employment.  Am I doing something wrong? 

 

How do I claim the expenses on my bicycle (my work vehicle) as deductions?

Unfortunately, posts on this forum were migrated here from an older board that use different software and everything got a 2019 date, even if they referred to prior tax seasons.  The ability for W-2 employees to deduct unreimbursed work-related expenses was eliminated in the 2018 tax reform act.  (That used to be on form 2106 but no longer.)   

Some states continue to allow deduction of work related expenses as a miscellaneous itemized deduction following the old federal rules.  TurboTax has always been designed that you enter all your information in the federal section and then it flows downhill to your state return, so TurboTax still asks for work-related expenses in the federal section. They may flow downhill to your state tax return if you itemize your deductions on your state tax return.


Work-related expenses for W-2 employees used to include assets as well as expenses.  For example, a car mechanic who is a W-2 employee of an auto dealership but bought all their own tools, could list the tools as depreciable assets.  So as a W-2 employee, you are able to enter a bicycle as an asset if it is a necessary and ordinary item required in your work.  That means that a bicycle messenger could enter their bike as an asset, but an office manager who used the bike for commuting cannot, because the bike is not an ordinary and necessary expense of doing the job of office manager.

 

I should apologize because when I read your original post I guess I assumed you were an independent contractor like a bike messenger or delivery person trying to enter a bike as a business asset.  If you only use it for commuting, you would not list it as a work asset.

Your employer could choose to provide employee's assistance with commuting costs, but I believe that all such assistance would have to be included as part of your taxable wages under the current laws.

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